A European Approach to Regulate Artificial Intelligence: Possible Global Impact
Krishna Ravi Srinivas, PhD, Consultant & Senior
Fellow, RIS
On 21st April European Commission (EC)
unveiled an ambitious and broad proposal on regulating Artificial intelligence
(AI) in Europe. It is primarily aimed at regulating AI and its applications in
European Union. However, given the role of EC as a regulator and promotor of
innovation and EU being a major market for AI besides home to institutions and
companies that are doing pioneering work at AI , it has global implications.
The proposal (‘Regulation of The European Parliament and of The Council Laying Down
Harmonised Rules on
Artificial Intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act) And Amending Certain
Union Legislative Acts) and Proposal for a Regulation of the European
Parliament and of the Council on machinery products, will now undergo a lengthy
review process at the European Parliament and at the European Council, that
represents the 27 national governments. The final approved version may be
different from what EC has proposed.
News reports and commentators have highlighted the
provisions that ban certain applications and its identification of high-risk
applications of AI that would be subjected to supervision and standards for
development. The overall thrust is to find a balance between promoting
innovation, building trust among the public on AI and its applications and identification
of applications that are aberrant to European values and fundamental human
rights. Although there have been critiques and skeptical views on the
regulations, it is an ambitious attempt to develop a wholistic framework to
regulate.
What is interesting and noteworthy from a governance
perspective is that EC chose this after considering the four options and it
also provides for regulatory sandboxes as an option. EU is keen to take an
early lead on regulating new technologies and enforcing new regulations and it
has tried this in inter alia, data protection, digital competition, and online
content moderation. In all these EU has been trying to base them on the core
values that guide EU in formulating its rules and regulations. By such
initiatives EU is attempting to set a template or model in regulating that
technology/application which will inspire other countries to adopt it or adapt
it. For example, although adhering to General
Data Protection Regulation is considered cumbersome, the EU’s GDPR has emerged
as a model for other countries. When it comes to AI, EU has been looking it
from a wholistic perspective considering it’s visions and plans for a Digital
Europe and the
Commission’s White Paper on AI published in 2020 which specified the vision for
AI in Europe as an ecosystem of excellence and ecosystem of trust.
The regulations ban outright some applications and for
purposes that are considered as high risk, the providers must make available
detailed documentation on how the AI system is compliant with the rules and in addition,
a ‘proper level of human oversight’ should be evident in system design and
application and quality requirements for data used in training AI software have
to be met. Thus, compliance should not be an issue for applications that are
not high risk and otherwise are acceptable. There is a provision for
levying fines up to 6 percent of the yearly global revenue in case of serious
violations. Thus, for companies and others who want to harness the European
Market and provide goods and services to consumers there are challenges. It
includes challenges such as making their AI applications and deployment
compatible with the regulations. But as Europe is also a major innovator in AI
this is a challenge to inter alia, start ups in Europe too.
To what extent this regulation will influence the
global regulation of AI is not clear at this moment. But Europe has the first
mover advantage as it has proposed a model that eschews tight control by the
state on development and deployment of AI and also to reward and punish
individual and social behavior through deploying AI and big data. The very fact
that only applications/deployment that would fall under the high-risk category
would be heavily regulated and this risk-based approach gives flexibility in
regulation as it not technology based but based on the purpose of application
or deployment of AI.
In terms of innovation governance, EU proposal is an
example for promoting responsible innovation in AI and linking trust with
excellence in harnessing and advancing Science, Technology and Innovation.
Moreover, the idea of using regulatory sandboxes indicates that regulation is
not atop down approach and there is scope for innovators and regulators to work
together, learn and understand issues in regulating emerging technologies and
applications and enhance regulation. This can result in agility in regulation
and governance. In 2018, EC and the
member states adopted the Coordinated Plan on AI , for establishing policy
co-ordination and development of national strategies. Now this Coordinated Plan
will be reviewed. The proposal envisages
setting up of a European Artificial
Intelligence Board, which will consist of representatives from the relevant
regulator from each member state, EC and the European Data Protection
Supervisor. The Board is expected to play a key role in harmonized
implementation of the regulations and in recommending cases that could be
deemed as ‘high risk’.
To sum up, this is an ambitious attempt to regulate AI
and will have implications for development and deployment of AI in Europe and
elsewhere. While it is too premature to state that this will have larger
repercussions in regulating AI in every country that wants to regulate AI, one
need not be surprised if EU/EC use soft power to promote it as a perfect
solution for dilemmas in regulating AI.
(These are preliminary observations, and, a longer
article will be published soon on the proposed regulations on AI)
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